I decided to use the technology available at my school to record my final vision project. Currently, we have five SMART Boards and a class set of iPads available to our 300 plus elementary school. The teachers with the SMART Boards in their rooms have SMART Notebook skills that range from complete novice to advanced novice. This group includes myself. The iPads skills of the entire staff are about the same. I wanted to become better educated with this technology, so I can support the staff.
Problems I have run into so far:
1. Sharing the presentation with the members of LIBE 477 - I first thought I would have to send the project through email. I have since discovered that the blog I am using will allow me to add a link. If I upload the project to Google Drive this allows me to have a link to upload. I haven't tried it yet, so I hope it works.
2. iPads lack of Flash -
a) The iPad does not have flash technology so I decided to use a variety of activities. Some will work on the iPad and some will not.
b) Adding sound effects - on the SMART Notebook software I was able to make any of the sound effect objects transparent, but when I opened the project with the SMART Notebook express on the iPads some of the objects were no longer transparent. This limited my choice of sound effects. I could use only objects that would appear transparent on the iPad software version.
c) Object animation - Again because of the lack of flash, I was unable to lock the object animation fade out. This will allow the object to be moved manually on the iPad to reveal the text below while still allowing the object to fade out by touch on the SMART Board.
3. Switching between the school's computer and the iPad - Currently I don't own a computer. I can pry my son's laptop out of his hands when he has to go to work, but it doesn't have the SMART Notebook software, so most of my work on this project had to be done on the school's computer. Because the school's computer doesn't have a microphone, I had to record the audio on the iPad. At first, I was worried it wouldn't transfer when I opened the project on the computer. Thankfully it did, but not all the time, so there was a lot of back and forth which was frustrating and time consuming.
What I have learned about the SMART Notebook is how to embed a browser, add audio, make objects transparent, and download sound effects from SMART Exchange.
Future Learning
Currently, my school computer is using SMART Notebook 11. I will have to ask the overworked, under-appreciated IT department to upgrade to notebook 14.2, so I can try out the Maestro add on. This will allow me to wirelessly connect my iPad SMART Notebook Express app to the SMART Board. I will then be able to control what's going happening on the SMART Board from my iPad.
https://youtu.be/1SR6kwj2t_4
google drive does work checkout a draft of my project on next post
google drive does work checkout a draft of my project on next post
A good overview of the many types of technology challenges we all face when building and implementing something new. The use of flash as a technology by SMART will continue to be an issue as more and more browsers are opting to "disable" flash as it is becoming a security leak on most computers. Also, flash is not well supported by mobile devices like Tablets and Smartphones. Hopefully, the SMART board company will work to address this by adapting a new format for their lessons. Good testing and troubleshooting your posting of the project online.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences with this technology. It will be great to refer back to these posts for tips if I end up teaching in a library with a Smartboard.
ReplyDeleteIt's impressive to hear about how you're handling all the unforseen technical challenges! It must be frustrating, but it seems like you've learned a lot this semester, and probably developed your technology skills quite a bit! I've enjoyed reading about your vision project, and hopefully we'll get to see the end result. Good luck!
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